A think tank (also called a "policy institute") is an organization, institute, corporation, or group that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, science or technology issues, industrial or business policies, or military advice.[1] Many think tanks are non-profit organizations, which in some countries such as the US and Canada provides them with tax exempt status. While many think tanks are funded by governments, interest groups, or businesses, some think tanks also derive income from consulting or research work related to their mandate.

While the National Insititute for Research Advancement hails think tanks as "... one of the main policy actors in democratic societies", which assure a "... pluralistic, open and accountable process of policy analysis, research, decision-making and evaluation"[2], critics of think tanks have called them "little more than public relations fronts...generating self-serving scholarship that serves the advocacy goals of their industry sponsors." [3]
Critics such as Ralph Nader argue that think tanks' results are biased to a varying degree.

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Since "think tank" is a term that has only found use since the 1950s, there is still some debate over what constitutes the first think tank. One candidate is the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), founded in 1831 at the initiative of the Duke of Wellington. Another is the Fabian Society of Britain, founded in 1884 to promote gradual social change. The Brookings Institution, founded in the US in 1916 is another candidate for the first think tank. The term think tank itself, however, was originally used in reference to organizations that offered military advice, most notably the RAND Corporation, formed originally in 1946 as an offshoot of Douglas Aircraft and which became an independent corporation in 1948.

Until around 1970, there were no more than several dozen think tanks, mostly focused on offering non-partisan policy and military advice to the United States government, and generally with large staffs and research budgets. After 1970, the number of think tanks exploded, as many smaller new think tanks were formed to express various partisan, political, and ideological views.

Until the 1940s, most think tanks were known only by the name of the institution. During the Second World War, think tanks were referred to as "brain boxes" after the slang term for the skull. The phrase "think tank" in wartime American slang referred to rooms in which strategists discussed war planning. The first recorded use of the phrase to refer to modern think tanks was in 1959, and by the 1960s the term was commonly used to describe RAND and other groups assisting the armed forces. In recent times, the phrase "think tank" has become applied to a wide range of institutions, and there are no precise definitions of the term. Marketing or public relations organizations, especially of an international character, sometimes refer to themselves as think tanks, for example.

Some think tanks are clearly aligned with conservative or libertarian approaches to the economy (The Cato Institute, for example), while others, especially those with an emphasis on progressive social and environmental reforms (Tellus Institute, for example), are viewed as more liberal or left-of-center.

The nonprofit Center for Media and Democracy's SourceWatch website argues that think tanks are organizations "...that clai[m] to serve as a center for research and/or analysis of important public issues...are little more than public relations fronts...generating self-serving scholarship that serves the advocacy goals of their industry sponsors." It calls think tanks "phony institutes where ideologue~propagandists pose as academics ... [into which] money gushes like blood from opened arteries to support meaningless advertising's suffocation of genuine debate"."[4] SourceWatch argues that a think tank's research findings can tend to be in "...accordance with the interests of its funders." SourceWatch claims that an "...important functions of think tanks is to provide a backdoor way for wealthy business interests to promote their ideas or to support economic and sociological research not taking place elsewhere that they feel may turn out in their favor."

SourceWatch comments that while think tank's researchers have "... titles such as "senior fellow" or "adjunct scholar," but this does not necessarily mean that they even possess an academic degree in their area of claimed expertise." SourceWatch claims that "think tanks are like universities...minus the systems of peer review and other mechanisms that academia uses to promote diversity of thought. Real academics are expected to conduct their research first and draw their conclusions second, but this process is often reversed at most policy-driven think tanks."[5]

Critics such as Ralph Nader have suggested that because of the private nature of the funding of think tanks their results are biased to a varying degree. Some argue members will be inclined to promote or publish only those results that ensure the continued flow of funds from private donors. This risk of distortion similarly threatens the reputation and integrity of organizations such as universities, once considered to stand wholly within the public sector. Defenders state that think tanks arose to challenge the liberal orthodoxy of the universities in place starting in the 1970s.

Some critics go further to assert think tanks are little more than propaganda tools for promoting the ideological arguments of whatever group established them. They charge that most think tanks, which are usually headquartered in state or national seats of government, exist merely for large-scale lobbying to form opinion in favor of special private interests. They give examples such as organizations calling themselves think tanks having hosted lunches for politicians to present research that critics claim is merely in the political interest of major global interests such as Microsoft, but that the connections to these interests are never disclosed. They charge, as another example, that the RAND Corporation issues research reports on national missile defense that accelerate investment into the very military products being produced by the military manufacturers who control RAND. Critics assert that the status of most think-tanks as non-profit and tax exempt makes them an even more efficient tool to put special interest money to work.

In recent years, many think tanks have begun to promote causes which are contrary to established scientific opinion. For example, The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition was formed in the mid 1990s as part of the tobacco industry's attempt to cast doubt on EPA studies showing that secondhand smoke could cause cancer.[2] According to an internal memo from Philip Morris, "the credibility of the EPA is defeatable, but not on the basis of ETS (environmental tobacco smoke) alone. It must be part of a larger mosaic that concentrates all the EPA's enemies against it at one time." [3]

Think tanks in the United States play an important role in forming both foreign and domestic policy. Typically, an issue such as national missile defense will be debated within and among think tanks and the results of these debates will influence government policy makers. Think tanks in the United States generally receive funding from private donors, and members of private organizations. Think tanks may feel more free to propose and debate controversial ideas than people within government.

Though there are think tanks in every part of the political spectrum, conservative think tanks outnumber their centrist and liberal/progressive counterparts. For example, the media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) released a report in 2006 which listed the 25 think tanks which were mentioned most often in the mainstream media news in 2005. The most-mentioned think tank was the centrist or center-left Brookings Institution. The next two most-mentioned think tanks--the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, are conservative while the fourth, the Cato Institute, is libertarian. Of media citations, a plurality, 47% were centrist, while 40% were conservative and 13% were progressive. [14]

In the People's Republic of China a number of think tanks are sponsored by governmental agencies but still retain sufficient non-official status to be able to propose and debate ideas more freely. Indeed, most of the actual diplomacy between China and the United States has taken the form of academic exchanges between members of think tanks.

In Hong Kong, those early think tanks established in the late 1980s and early 1990s including Hong Kong Transition Project, Hong Kong Democratic Foundation and The One Country Two Systems Research Institute focused on the political development including first direct Legislative Council members election in 1991 and the political framework of “One Country, Two Systems” manifested in the Sino-British Joint Declaration. After the return of sovereign to the Mainland China in 1997, more and more think tanks were established by various groups of intellectuals and professionals. They have various missions and objectives including promoting civic education; undertaking research on economic social and political policies (the mission of the Civic Exchange); promoting “public understanding of and participation in the political, economic, and social development of the Hong Kong SAR” (one of the objectives of Savantas).

In Germany all of the major parties are loosely associated with research foundations that play some role in shaping policy, but generally from the more disinterested role of providing research to support policymakers than explicitly proposing policy. The foundations are:

In Italy, in the Venices, the Venezie Institute is the first free-market think tank, founded in 2005. It aims to bring about institutional, social and economic changes in the Venices based on the traditional Venetian principles of free enterprise, institutional integrity, limited government and individual liberty. It is completely independent of any political party, religious or economic interest group. Its motto: "Pro Bono Publico".

In Switzerland, Avenir Suisse (which proposes a free-market liberalism agenda) is the only think tank that is currently active.

In Denmark, the Copenhagen Institute is the first free-market think tank, founded in 2003. In 2004 high-profile representatives of Danish academia, business, media and the arts founded the free-market think tank CEPOS, which has had enormous success in setting a new agenda in the Danish welfare debate.

In Sweden, the Eudoxa think tank has successfully introduced a combination between studies of free-market ideas, emerging technologies, technological and environmental foresight. Most famous among the Swedish think tanks is Timbro, a free market think tank.

In Portugal, a very important think tank, is Compromisso Portugal, based on young entrepreneurs and academists aiming to contribute to the debate of ideas how to develop Portugal.

Russian think tanks have experienced a precipitous decline over the past five years. Think tanks under the Soviet Union, analogous to their American counterparts, grew to play a significant role in strategic policy formation. During the era of glasnost, begun by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and continuing under Russian President Boris Yeltsin, public think tanks and policy organizations underwent a brief blooming. However, as economic problems intensified under Yeltsin, and political pressure on public organizations grew under President Vladimir Putin, most of the Russian think tanks have withered away while those who stood closer to Kremlin saw a recent revival.

Think tanks in Turkey are relatively new business. Many of them are sister organisations of a political party or a company. University think tanks are not typical think tanks. Turkish think tanks provide research and ideas yet they play less important roles in policy making when compared with the American think tanks. Among the most important think tanks in Turkey are the following:

SAREM (Ankara) is one of the more influential think-tanks in Turkey. It is close to Turkish Armed Forces. It has a well-connected network of individuals, and has members from both the military and Turkish academics.

TESEV (Istanbul) is a liberal research center in Istanbul. Despite a great amount of influence and reach among the business elites and public opinion, it has a lesser affect on political circles.

USAK (Ankara) In English, the organization calls itself International Strategic Research Organization, ISRO. On the website, it is claimed that "ISRO is not intended to be a forum for single-issue advocacy or lobbying." It was established in 2004 and is an umbrella organization with 9 research centers. It is liberal and close to the Turkish diplomatic circles, military and political circles. Sponsored by the business community and member donations.

SETA (Ankara) Established in 2006 and suspected of being close to the Turkish Government. It is known to be conservative.

ASAM (Ankara) Nationalist and militarist. Sponsored by the nationalist military circles and close to certain factions within the Turkish Armed Forces. The acronym stands for 'Eurasia Strategic Research Center' in Turkish.

TUSAM (Ankara) Leftistnationalist is the Strategic Research Center for National Security. It is close to the leftist, nationalist military circles.

TEPAV (Ankara) Economic Policy Resarch Institute Established in 2004. Supported by The Union of Chambers of Turkey (TOBB). Working on economy, foreign policy and governance issues. Close to business world and has liberal way of thinking. It has a wide public following and some degree of policy influence.